LIving Smarter, Not Harder

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to 50 and beyond

As I get older (and presumably wiser!) I continue to learn, what I like to call the ‘home truths’. Such as, the difference between being ‘happy‘ with what you have and being ‘content‘ with what you have. They can be perceived as two very different concepts which provoke pole opposite action and/or thought.

Many ‘truths’ are learnt from life experience and for me, they have been life-changing lessons. Lessons that touch you heart and soul and leave you with a peaceful, calm feeling within. In fact, my tagline (“Living Smarter, Not Harder”) was created to reflect my ‘revised’ attitude and outlook on life

The Great Dictator was Charlie Chaplin’s first film with dialogue. Chaplin plays both a little Jewish barber, living in the ghetto, and Hynkel, the dictator ruler of Tomainia. The final speech was written by Chaplin himself for the end of the movie as a call for peace from the barber who has been mistaken for Hynkel. It was criticized by many and said to be superfluous to the film. While others, myself included, found it uplifting.

Without a doubt, Chaplin’s words are as relevant today as they were in 1940.

Which leaves me wondering, how far have we really come? And are we even heading in the right direction? Perhaps we’re moving further away with every advance.

While I was thinking about my answer, I had a bit of a chuckle because it sounded very much like the answer I would give if ever asked what religion I followed.

You see, I don’t really identify with either one and I don’t want to say that I’m exclusively one or another because, well, you know I don’t know if I can resist dairy and cheese. One thing I do know, it’s that I want to reduce (not ready to ‘eliminate’) meat and animal products in my diet.

Ralph Smart (Infinite Waters) speaks often about his choice to eat a vegan diet and his reasons for doing so. A vegan diet was not really anything of a priority for me, all my life I had been naturally thin and had never needed to watch what I ate. Diet was never an issue for me until recently when I entered my forties. First of all, my eyesight started to deteriorate, then arthritis started to knock loudly on my joints reminding me that I’m not a spring chicken anymore and although healthy, I became concerned about stuff like Diabetes and Heart Disease.

For me, there was a definite moment in life when I finally realised, ‘f*ck I’m old. I’m closer to 50 than I am 40… WTF? Now, I’m not sure if this happens to everyone or whether I’m the only one that feels that way. For instance, I love to walk, especially out in nature, breathing in that good arse prana’ (one for the Deep Divers) and almost everyday for the past 6-7 years, you would find me out walking or hiking with my dogs. One day, I developed a twinging pain in my knee and thought ‘Gee, wonder what I did to my knee’. After a moment or two, I corrected myself;

And now, I have found a really important reason to start looking after my health and that reason is love. Meeting the man of my dreams in 2015 had a profound effect on my desire for a long healthy life. The longer I’m alive, the more time we will have to share during this lifetime. There is much we have to learn, countless memories to create and a love story that’s aching to exist.

So, when it comes to Vegan or Vegetarian? Well, I’m still not going to commit to either one but I will commit to eating more plant-based foods, more fresh fruits and vegetables and less meats and animal products.

Ralph from Infinite Waters has more information about the 7 Day Vegan Challenge and I will be using this as the starting point in my vegan journey. Perhaps you’d like to join me? If so. please leave a comment and keep me updated with your progress.

My ‘can’t-get-enough’ cocktail ingredient at the moment is (shhh!) – ice cream. In honor of *the artist formerly known as Prince*, I named my first recipe a ‘Spider Cruising In A Raspberry Beret’ as I was drinking them on the day his death was reported on the news.

Of course, it’s also a wonderfully delicious addition to Kahlua or Tia-Maria Milkshakes…

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Tender perfectly describes how I feel right now; tender in heart, mind and spirit.

The last two weeks of May was the final curtain call in the drama that apparently was my life for the past 4 years. Even now, counting out the years on my fingers, I just can’t believe how much time that has passed and how much (crappy) stuff I’ve dealt with – or perhaps not dealt with.

The events of these years played out with a domino effect, you could say it was like an avalanche that started with a quiet rumble and just got bigger and more out of control until it was unfathomable and unavoidable.

They hit me in every corner and effected every part of my being. I am no longer the same person that I was before this ordeal started. For better or for worse? Well, I guess that remains to be seen.

But if this wasn’t enough, the final blow, the last nail to be driven into the coffin was when the system that’s meant to protect me ended up being a complete failure.

I like to think that truth will always prevail in the end and yeah yeah, I know, the judge and jury don’t ‘KNOW’ anything for sure and they can only go by the evidence that is before them.

But I DO KNOW the truth about the events in Feb 2015. I waited two and a half years to finally have my day in court, and every little bit of strength that I had built within since that night was once again, stripped from me when the system failed grandly.

Well, fuck the system, I never had much faith in it anyway.

The only thing that will save me and restore some of that faith is if the system could repay me in kind by sending my man home at the end of June. It’s torture being apart however, I won’t allow myself to hope (not yet anyway) because I fear the disappointment that comes with him not being released.

But come on now, fair’s fair – I think the system owes me one, don’t you?

Besides, it’s time for us to move on from our past and start to create our future.

This morning turned into one of those mornings when you wake up to ‘no milk’, which means ‘no coffee’ but you’re ‘too lazy’ to walk to the shop.

So you do the next-best thing and you ask your daughter if she would drive to the shop for you…? but of course, she’s way too busy.

Alas, I looked in the fridge once again, knowing too well that the only thing I was going to find, the only thing that even came close as a substitute for my usual coffee creamer, was a carton of Vitasoy Unsweetened Almond Milk.

So, Almond Milk it was.

Under normal circumstances, this would be classified as ‘last-resort’ actions so to soften the blow to my taste-buds, I decided to heat the Almond Milk and use honey for flavour rather than try to perfect my morning coffee.

I have since learnt that Vitasoy do have a product called Café for Baristas Almond Milk that has been specifically formulated for barista-made coffee.

Taking my first sip, I must say, the taste was a pleasant surprise; I mean, I could tell that it wasn’t dairy milk but I genuinely enjoyed my ‘unusual’ morning cuppa. Not only did I finish the entire drink in only a few gulps, I even went back for seconds.

Overall, Almond Milk tasted much better than I thought it would and I’d definitely buy it again.

I’m Ms. 18033 and (for now) I am a prison wife. More importantly, I am a mother to 3 beautiful children; my eldest daughter is 24, my son is 22 and my youngest daughter is about to turn 18. My children are, and always will be, my greatest achievement in life.

Turning 40 was a definite turning point for me. As many people do, i had a major mind shift when my thoughts turned from ‘one day, when I grow up, I will (insert hopes and dreams here)’ to ‘WOW, I AM grown up and this is it, THIS IS MY LIFE’.

Normally, I would expect this to bring on a sense of panic or regret for all the dreams that hadn’t yet been realised, when in fact I found it to be quite liberating and overall, a very humble experience.

Last weekend, my youngest daughter, proudly reminded me that in exactly one month, she would be turning 18 and I was surprised by the tears that overflowed and rolled down my cheeks. Of course, they were tears of joy, expressing a proud moment in a mum’s life.

Today, I am closer to 50 than 40 and I know I have some big changes coming up and this is my reason for blogging. I want to change how I live life, I want to spend more time living and loving instead of working and consuming. I want to catch fish, build campfires, play guitar and write letters to my sister in Spanish. Most of all, I want to love life and that means finding a different way.

So, here goes… please join me on my journey to fifty and beyond, BUT do hold on, cause its gonna be one hell of ride.